Establishing Geographies of Children and Young People

Children's and young people's geographies is one of the most recent sub-disciplines within human geography. It has rapidly developed to a level of critical mass which includes established academic work, key names within academia, growing numbers of graduate students, expanding numbers of university level taught courses, as well as national and international training programmes focusing on younger people. In addition to the journal Children's Geographies, all the major academic presses have published monographs, textbooks and edited collections focusing on children and young people. However, the largest international collection of scholarly work on geographies of children and young people is now available through the Springer Major Reference Work, Geographies of Children and Young People. This edited collection comprises twelve volumes containing almost 300 chapters. The volumes and sections are structured by themes, which reflect the broader geographical debates, geographical diversity, and scholarly expertise of 24 editors and chapter contributors.

Associate Professor Tracey Skelton Formerly a Professor in Critical Geographies at Loughborough University in the UK, Tracey Skelton joined the Department of Geography at the National University of Singapore in 2007. Her key areas of scholarly expertise focus on children's and young people's geographies, and political, urban development geographies. She has conducted research in Cambodia, the Caribbean, China, India, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and the UK. Tracey is currently a co-principal investigator on a Canadian funded project, National Futures or Emerging Crises? Youth Labour Market Integration Policies and Practices, investigating young people transitioning from education into employment in Singapore and Toronto, Canada. Tracey initiated and co-authored the Women and Geography Study Group Feminist Geographies: Explorations in Diversity and Difference (Addison Wesley Longman 1997) and Towards Inclusive Youth Policies and Practices: Lessons from Young Lesbians, Gay Men and D/deaf People, (Youth Work Press 2003). She also edited Introduction to the Pan-Caribbean (Arnold 2004), and co-edited Culture and Global Change (1999) and Cool Places: Geographies of Youth Cultures (Routledge 1998). Her most recent co-edited book is, Realities and Aspirations for Asian Youth: Education, Training and Employment (Routledge 2019). She has been a co-editor of the journal Children's Geographies (Taylor and Francis) for nine years and was the Viewpoints Editor from 2005 to 2018; she is an editorial board member for Geoforum. Tracey Skelton is the Editor-in-Chief for the twelve-volume Springer Major Reference Work, Geographies of Children and Young People, published between 2015 and 2019.

Dr. Stuart C. Aitken is June Burnett Chair and Distinguished Professor of Geography at San Diego State University, and director of the research center Youth, Environment, Society and Space (YESS). His research interests include critical social theory, qualitative methods, film, children, families and communities, child rights and youth activism. Stuart has worked with the UN on qualitative methods, child rights, labor and migration issues. His previous books include Young People, Rights and Place (Routledge 2018), The Ethnopoetics of Space: Young People's Engagement, Activism and Aesthetics (Ashgate, 2016), The Fight to Stay Put (Steiner Verlag, 2013), Young People. Border Spaces and Revolutionary Imaginations (Routledge 2011), Qualitative Geographies (Sage 2010), The Awkward Spaces of Fathering (Ashgate, 2009). Global Childhoods (Routledge 2008), Geographies of Young People (Routledge 2001), Family Fantasies and Community Space (Rutgers University Press, 1998), and Place, Space, Situation and Spectacle (Rowman and Littlefield, 1994). He has published over 250 research papers, essays and reviews in academic journals as well as in various edited book collections and encyclopedias. Stuart is past co-editor of The Professional Geographer and Children's Geographies.